1. Related Applications
This application is related to and claims the prior filing date of United Kingdom Application No. 90-24906.1 entitled "Document Transport Track Drive Mechanism" filed Nov. 15, 1990.
2. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a roller drive mechanism for use in document processing machines incorporating a document transport track.
3. Description of the Prior Art
Many different types of document transport machines exist for the automatic mechanical or electronic processing of documents. The automatic processing of documents involves the deposition of data thereon, the retrieval of data therefrom, and sorting and stacking the documents. Automatic document processing also involves in its broad scope computer punched cards and checks and includes all sorts of official and financial documents bearing indicia thereon. The present invention will be described with reference to its prefer use in a check encoding machine using the automatic processing of bankers checks. It is to be understood that this represents only one area of use of the present invention and that the present invention may be applied to other types of document transport equipment where a document is moved along a track in a manner to be disclosed hereinafter.
Heretofore, check encoding and transport equipment was available that accepted stacks of checks each of which is removed from the stack and moved along a document track to be processed and thereafter delivered and sorted to one of a plurality of output stacks The present invention concerns itself with the roller drive mechanism for the document track where the checks are transported in the course of being processed.
Document processing machines, for use in check handling and the like, drive the document to be processed along a horizontal transport track using a series of horizontal, or near horizontal, pairs of rollers spaced at intervals which are less than the minimum length of the document being transported. In check handling equipment a roller drive is required every four inches or so. Accordingly, in transport tracks of the order of several feet a substantial number of pairs of rollers is required.
Typically the rollers of a pair are arranged such that one roller is driven while the other roller idles by urges the document to be transported towards the driven roller.
The rollers of the track are driven from a drive motor or motors using a system of drive belts. The drive belts may be arranged in cascade fashion or on an individual basis involving intermediate pulleys.
Such systems of belt drives involve a substantial number of individual belts each of which are prone to breakage, stretch and wear, making the sorting equipment prone to major breakdown since a single belt failure may disrupt the entire document transport mechanism.